34 million backyard garden plots

If you are already looking over the spring seed catalogs, you must belong to one of the 34 million US households growing their own vegetables. According to a 1980-81 Gallup Organization survey conducted for Gardens-for-All, 43 percent of America's family- units were working at being urban farmers on backyard plots averaging just over 600 square feet. Another 8 million are pot-gardeners, growing vegetables in containers on patios, balconies , and terraces. The survey found the greatest number of home gardeners of this kind in the Midwest, with the Eastern states next and then the South.

Backyard and pot gardens of this kind are estimated to produce edibles whose value would total $15 billion a year.